Serbs seizing young men from convoys

MORINI, Albania {AP} Serb forces are seizing young men from refugee convoys, said refugees arriving Saturday in the latest major wave of cars and tractor-drawn wagons from Kosovo.

More than 12,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo crossed into northern Albania on Friday, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. At least 6,000 more crossed Saturday.

Most refugees arriving in Albania on Saturday came from Prizren, the nearest major city to the mountain crossing from southwest Kosovo into northern Albania.

There were no reports of killings or other atrocities in Prizren, but several refugees said Serb forces had been taking away young men from teen-agers to middle-aged men and dressing them in military uniforms. It was impossible to verify the claims and unclear why such actions might be taken.

Xhemsid Halili, 64, said his family watched their house and others burn as they left their village of Llapa, near Podujevo in the north. On the road to Pristina, the Kosovo capital, Serb police stopped the tractor and ordered six young men off two of his sons and four sons of his brother.

"They said all the young guys in the tractor will come with us," said Halili. "They gathered them in one place and put them in buses." He estimated there were 120 men put on the three buses that then drove away.

In the past, Serbs have rounded up large numbers of Albanian men because of fears they would join the Kosovo Liberation Army, whose secessionist battling with the Serbs triggered the Yugoslav crackdown. There has also been a general mobilization in Serbia due to the ongoing war, and no male Yugoslav citizen between the ages of 16 and 65 is allowed to leave the country without army permission.

Halili and his family were one of several groups arriving in wagons hauled by tractors that came from the Podujevo area. They told of a plodding journey that began when Serb forces ordered them out Thursday and burned their houses.

Those who came from Prizren said they were fleeing a deteriorating situation, with food scarce because most ethnic Albanian shops were closed and Serb shops running short of supplies.

A U.N. refugee agency worker said Friday that the thousands coming from Prizren appeared to be signaling a Serb effort to clear Kosovo's second-largest city of ethnic Albanians.

Some of those crossing the border said they were forced out by armed Serb police and paramilitary fighters.